Users of multimedia-capable mobile devices such as personal data assistants (PDAs) and cellular telephone-PDA hybrids can use cellular mobile networks to send and receive e-mail and obtain web services. However, using such cellular networks is not efficient for downloading or streaming large content files such as movies, music, television programs, or other multimedia files. The cost per delivered multimedia bit and speed make it more cost-efficient for the mobile device user to use a cable broadband, DSL, or telephone modem for downloading or streaming such large multimedia content files.
The large content files are stored in content provider web servers which can be adopted for web commerce so that a user may have to pay for access or downloading of each content file, or may have to have a paid subscription for access to a limited or unlimited number of content files from that content provider. Such web commerce-adapted content provider web servers require authentication of the user subscription or payment prior to allowing a stored content file to be downloaded or streamed.
If the mobile device user is traveling, for example, and only has web access to a less cost-efficient network such as a cellular network but plans to be at a second location with a higher speed connection and/or more cost-efficient downloading capability at some future time, the mobile device user may wish to defer selecting, ordering and paying for such large content files until the arriving at the second location.
The second location having the more cost-efficient capacity may be a public access point, known as a “hotspot” where Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) a wireless broadband computer network in a public space has been established. Hotspots currently offer connection speeds of 11 megabits per second using IEEE 802.11b (“Wi-Fi”) standard or 55 megabits per second using IEEE 802.11g, and may be located in coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, airports, bookstores, copy shops, and convention centers, for example. At hotspots, a user with a Wi Fi-enabled mobile device such as a PDA, laptop computer, cellular telephone, or hybrid PDA-Cell phone, for example, can access the Internet and download or stream large content files very cost-efficiently.
Internet access at hotspots is generally provided either by a subscription service, or a payment for each use, or is free, and is enabled by a wireless router which provides a radio transceiver which communicates with a laptop or PDA or cell phone having a wireless card. A mobile user which is not Wi-Fi enabled may connect to the hotspot Internet server in some cases with a wire connection, although in the future all mobile devices are expected to be Wi-Fi enabled.
It is conventional for a wireless mobile device user to access the Internet at a hotspot and select, request, and pay for, a content file from a remote content provider server for immediate downloading.
However, the mobile user may find it convenient to select a content file on a content provider web site while traveling and/or on a cellular or other lower speed network and have the content file downloaded in advance for immediate access when the mobile user visits the hotspot without having to connect to the content provider web site during the visit to obtain the content file.